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A merchant, without over-trading, may frequently have occasion

for a sum of ready money, even when he has no bills to discount.

When a bank, besides discounting his bills, advances him

likewise, upon such occasions, such sums upon his cash account,

and accepts of a piece-meal repayment, as the money comes in from

the occasional sale of his goods, upon the easy terms of the

banking companies of Scotland; it dispenses him entirely from the

necessity of keeping any part of his stock by him unemployed and

in ready money for answering occasional demands. When such

demands actually come upon him, he can answer them sufficiently

from his cash account. The bank, however, in dealing with such

customers, ought to observe with great attention, whether, in the

course of some short period (of four, five, six, or eight months,

for example), the sum of the repayments which it commonly

receives from them, is, or is not, fully equal to that of the

advances which it commonly makes to them.